Roger Bonham Smith

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Roger Bonham Smith, American business executive (born July 12, 1925, Columbus, Ohio—died Nov. 29, 2007, near Detroit, Mich.), served as chairman and CEO (1981–90) of the General Motors (GM) Corp. during one of the company’s most volatile periods. After serving (1944–46) in the U.S. Navy, Smith began working in 1949 for GM as an accounting clerk while completing his M.B.A. degree (1953) from the University of Michigan. He climbed the corporate ladder at GM, becoming treasurer (1970), vice president (1971), and executive vice president over the financial, government relations, and public relations departments (1974). As CEO, Smith instituted vast changes in an attempt to return the company to profitability (GM’s operating loss in 1980 was $750 million). Besides overseeing a reorganization, he implemented robotic technology to help build vehicles, introduced the first front-wheel-drive midsize cars, and closed 11 assembly plants, including those in Flint, Mich., where some 30,000 jobs were lost. The latter action inspired the Michael Mooredocumentary filmRoger & Me (1989), in which Moore hounds Smith in an attempt to make him account for the plant closures and job losses in Flint. In an enduring effort to keep GM competitive with the Japanese automakers, Smith launched (1990) the Saturn line of vehicles. Despite his efforts, GM’s domestic market share had tumbled from 46% to 35% by 1990.